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Medal of Honor Linux Beta Released
DF5JT writes "Icculus has finally released a preview of his current work on the Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault Linux port, in the form of a Beta executable. He says 'It's playable, but the sound is wonky and has other issues.' You'll need an installed Windows version of the game to start the binary."
What's up with "you need an installed Windows version"? Why can't they have a normal beta?
That said, I'm all for Linux games. Great work guys! Gaming is the only reasion my best PC is still Windows.
Disclaimer: This opinion was created without the use of any facts
i'm wondering if there's really that much demand out there to play moh:aa now, since that game was released over a year ago, and i personally haven't heard of any friends playing it lately. insert your diatribe below...
I wonder if games sales/use for Linux would be greater if the Linux port were released at the same time as the Winodws version. It seems to me many people do not bother with the Linux version or patches because by the time it comes out for Linux they have been playing it in Windows for months and don't feel like moving it over. This was the case for me with NWN.
If the major games were released for Windows and Linux at the same time though there would never be a need to install on Windows.
The problem seems to be that developers take multi-platform code as an afterthought. "We'll write the windows version and then we'll put some junior dev on porting it".
Few seem to realize that developing multi-platform from day one is a) not harder, b) shows professionalism and c) is one of the greatest ways to accomplish good bug free code.
I'm sure Carmack agrees. :-P
Belief is the currency of delusion.
If we're serious about getting linux much more widely adopted, linux needs a killer game that isn't available on windows...
Just imagine if Doom III was shipped as Linux-Only.
(hey, one can dream right?)...
The difficulty comes from short-sited code written by developers who seem the think DirectX is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Porting something that has been built with the heart of its architechture around one platform takes far longer and is usually kludgier than a system that has had portablility in mind since its inception. The disaster that has been the NWN port is a key example - the game was built around proprietary file formats and libraries that didn't have a linux (or mac) equivalent. Really, there's no excuse for this in my mind, especially on a project that was intended to be that big from the start.
Kudos for just requiring the Windows version of the game. Except for some older DOS games that are being ported to work in OSX natively, it's a pain to buy two copies of my favorite games just because I have two different operating systems. I wouldn't mind paying a reduced fee, but shelling out for what is essentially a new binary -- the data content is largely the same -- seems to be a bit silly.
Unless you can do better, SHUT YOUR FUCKING TRAP. I'm so fucking sick of you idiots who bitch & whine about something without having a basic grasp of what they are bitching about. You couldn't port a visual basic program from win98 to winxp, so don't sit here and whine about some guy spending his free time doing something he wanted to do!!
It only took Ryan this long because he had more important things to do.
Linux is here to stay and it's presence on the desktop will only increase from here. As people get used to the idea that Windows is not the only option, Mac OS may also pick up new converts.
You are an optimist. People buy home machines because they look like what they are used to at work/school/whatever. Hence, most purchases are Windows boxes.
Breaking that requires breaking into schools and businesses with Linux on the desktop, and that isn't happening anywhere significant in the US. Cited issue is 'the users are used to what we have, why change'. You might have a better shot in Europe. Even the specter of huge licensing costs doesn't seem to have made much of a dent here.
Macs even had a toehold in education once - it's pretty much faded far as I can see: most community colleges seem to be all Win32 now. Only the well funded private schools provide labs full of Macs anymore. Who knows how long even that will last.
The window (no pun intended) for breaking Microsoft's desktop monopoly has passed. IBM had the last big shot back in the 93-95 timeframe with OS/2 and blew it for various reasons. I don't think we are going to see much luck here, now or in the future.
I must sadly note that OS/2 had about as slick a desktop compared to Win31 as KDE or GNOME compare to Win32 today. Within close striking distance but not quite as good. The parallels to that situation back then are fairly striking. Big complaints back then were 'difficult to get vendor drivers for' 'new hardware isn't supported' 'lack of applications' - 2 out of 3 apply today. If you turn the third one to 'lack of commercial quality applications with a consistent interface', you have 3 out of 3.
This one has been beaten to death by trolls in the past, but sheesh, when history repeats itself do we all have to stay dumb and watch things go south without comment? Huge expenditures of time and effort by both paid and volunteer coders are being made to match Microsoft's commercial application/os juggernaut. I have been watching this industry for 20+ years. I have seen companies come and go, and technologies follow their arc. I can't see a longterm plan where the current Linux model works to take over the desktop, however.
Paradigm shift required.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
No, not in the way you're thinking. You need the Windows versions of these games because the Linux port _doesn't_ come with such essentials as sound and texture files. However, if you were to pirate the Windows game and then install the Linux version using those files, it would still work fine. Well, except that you still need the CD-key.
However, I must add that pirating Windows software for the Linux version of a game is a sure way to kill any future ports of other games to Linux (why port if it _raises_ piracy?). Play it clean - besides, how much is MOHAA now anyways? $20? You're not going to break the bank buying it.
-Erwos
Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.